ONE of Williamstown’s true sea salts is pulling up anchor after more than three decades working on the waters of Port Phillip Bay.
George Begg, a launch operator with the Port Phillip Sea Pilots, will retire later this year after 31 years’ service.
The Port Phillip Sea Pilots are one of Victoria’s oldest maritime institutions, having begun in 1839, as the first trading ships began to traverse the waters of the bay.
Mr Begg started with the sea pilots in October 1974 as a driver, and was originally based in Customs House, near Gem Pier in Williamstown.
The pilot service operates 24 hours a day, 365 days per year these days, and Mr Begg can be called out at any time of day or night to pick up or drop off a pilot.
“It could be an oil tanker or a container ship or a bulk carrier, the key thing is that the vessel can berth safely somewhere.
“If they’re a big ship, they will anchor somewhere down the bay, perhaps off Point Cook at what they call the Outer Anchorage.
“A lot will depend on how long they have to stay at anchor until they can find a berth.
“Once I get the pilots ashore, my part in the process is over.”
Any vessel over 25 metres requires a pilot, an experienced mariner with local knowledge to guide enormous cargo and container ships safely to an anchorage or into port.
“The pilot is a master mariner,” Mr Begg said. “He is delivered safely to a ship outside the (Port Phillip) Heads, by launch. He then takes the ship to or from its berth in Melbourne or Geelong.
“It’s a purely logistical operation. You have to make sure you can get these people on and off the boat safely.
“Their lives are depending on how you handle the launch in all sorts of weather at any time of day.”
Fulfiling this simple-sounding brief is easy in fine weather, but when the sea is one’s workplace, things can change rapidly and every day is different.
“I vividly remember one day in the late ‘90s,” Mr Begg said. “There was a small tanker and I had to take a pilot out in the boat then, and we encountered some of the biggest seas I have ever seen in the bay.
“That day we didn’t need a ladder because with the size of the swell, the launch was coming up alongside the oil tanker and the pilot just stepped from our boat straight across.
“A lot of people don’t realise how savage it can be at times. A lot of people treat the bay with contempt but I really think it has to be treated with respect at all times.”
Working seven days on, seven off, on call 24 hours a day could take a toll on one’s family life, but Mr Begg said the support of his wife and his love of the job have kept him in it for so long.
But saying farewell to the job after more than three decades will not be easy and Mr Begg plans to stay active and help out with the sea pilots where he can.
“It’s been a great job.
“It can be no fun in nasty weather at three o’clock in the morning but really, you get the best of everything.
“The sea pilots are steeped in maritime history, and growing up in Williamstown I suppose there is just salt water in my veins.”
